Count On Me

Summary- Teenagers lives should be filled with freedom from parents, hanging out with friends, getting dates, and getting in as much trouble as possible. For Riley and Rhuben its filled with fear, anger, rebellion, and abuse, hoping to live to see another day...

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Prologue

“Now Mister. Buckner tell us one more time what you saw.” Said the over weight police officer.

“I already told ounce, why do I have to tell you again?” I asked. Jayden and I did not want to repeat the story all over again. I was getting too depressed to even think about it.

”Imagine what it is like for them.” Jayden agreed. That thought gave us strength. We could tell this story over and over until they had it memorized if we had to, we could do it for them.

“Just one more time for the record Mister. Buckner and Mr. Mulliver.” The man said.

I nodded and started the story.

“I was in my room doing homework by my window when I heard a loud bang. Jayden was hanging out and doing home work with me. I ignored the bang as Jayden looked out the window, where we heard the bang from across the street at my friend’s house. Jayden grabbed my arm and dragged me to the window to look out it. I looked at one of the windows and I could see someone’s back pressed onto the window, or at least half of her back the rest was pressed up to the wall.” I explained.

Jayden took over next. “At first I couldn’t tell who it was but then I recognized the person as my friend Riley. I didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t know where her sister, Rhuben, was, I kept watching and I saw Riley slide down the wall and she didn’t get back up. Then I saw Riley’s and Rhuben’s father, Robert walk up to her. At first I thought he was going to help Riley up because he bent down, but when he came back up he was holding Riley by her collar. I was wondering why Riley wasn’t fighting back but I didn’t have time to think about that since Robert through Riley across the room.”

I took a deep breath and continued with the story too. “That is when Jayden and I ran downstairs and told my dad. He is a police officer, he called backup. When they got there they surrounded the house and after a few tries of getting Robert to come out they busted down the snuck in with them. They all looked throughout the house, and found them in the basement. What I saw I would never forget; Riley was on the ground hunched over holding her stomach and surrounded by her own blood, Rhuben was laying on the ground, holding her head, Bailey, Liam, and Adrian were chained to the wall, skin and bones, and blood on them. They had bruises, cuts and wounds all over them. My father arrested Robert and called an ambulance.”

“We later found out that Robert had given them a sever drug over dose.” Jayden concluded.

“But they must have been acting weird while they were at school” the overweight officer said.

“They did, but we thought that they were PMSing, but, yes, we did think that there was something wrong with them because they always flinched when we went to give them a high-five” I said.

“Where they ever angry or overprotective or something?” the officer continued.

“For Riley, she was always mad at someone or something, so that wasn’t a shock,” Jayden said. “But for Rhuben, she was really secluded and hated to be alone with us unless someone from her family was with her. But the only time we became alarmed was when they kept making excuses or why they were always in pain or why they had bruises” Jayden sighed, sinking lower in his chair.

I didn’t blame him, we’ve been questioned ever since we went into the Jackson’s home, and we were really tired. I just wanted to go home, knowing my friends were ok, and go to sleep.

“All right, I have one more question to ask” the officer said.

“What is it?” I snapped irritably. Jayden kicked me in my shin, silencing me.

“Explain everything from the beginning, like, when they started to act weird” the officer replied.

I sighed again, it was going to be a long night…